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After trading in my Canon kit, I confess I was seduced by the idea of owning all the great lenses I’d read about in Fuji discussions. It’s not nearly so huge a range of lenses as the Canon system – in fact it seemed pretty achievable, so I went for broke and bought a whole bunch of shiny Fuji glass: 16, 18-55, 23, 35, 56, 60, 90. And I’ve hardly taken a photo since then. Every time we’d go out somewhere, I’d wonder about what lenses to take. And what bag to take. And in the end I’d just put a jacket on, close the door, and leave the camera gear behind. Not only frustrating, but also a complete waste of money!

This month we nipped over to Paris for a few days on George’s Easter break, and I decided to travel light by only taking three lenses. On the first day out I found myself looking for 16mm opportunities, and 56mm opportunities, and always swapping back to my beloved 35mm as a default lens after shooting. Not only was it an awful lot of faffing about, but all the images all looked a bit contrived – as I should have known of course – I spent all my time ‘looking for images’, and that never works for me. On the second day I decided to commit to using only the 56 for the whole day, and I thoroughly enjoyed being back ‘with’ the family – fully engaged and sharing the experiences, capturing fewer but much more natural moments. Far less hunting around like a mad ‘camera-clubber’; far fewer decisions getting in the way.

All the images on this page were shot with the Fuji 56mm f1.2 APD. From now on, I’m pretty sure I’ll leave the bag at home, and take a single prime wherever I go. Works better for me.

So! I’ll begin the process of downsizing very soon. 16mm will be the first to go, then the zoom and maybe the 60. Jury’s still out on the 23mm – I love the way it handles and performs, but I just don’t really shoot much on that focal length. 35, 56 and 90 would be a weird kit though, on APS-C… Hmm.